The present invention relates to a solid support able to adsorb lipoproteins, particularly low density lipoproteins present in a liquid, such as blood plasma. More specifically the invention relates to polyvinyl alcohol-based insoluble supports usable for the selective purification of low density lipoproteins in the blood plasma by selective adsorption.
The amount of low density lipoproteins is abnormally high in the blood of patients suffering from hypercholesterolemia, which can lead to risks of early cardiac accidents through serious vascular lesions due to the accumulation of these lipoproteins. Moreover, processes making it possible to purify the blood plasma of such patients by adsorption of low density lipoproteins on solid supports are of great interest, because at present there is no process of this type for carrying out this purification operation. Thus, hitherto plasmapheresis processes have been used and consist of partly substituting the plasma of the patient by a foreign plasma or by a replacement solution. In addition, the development of direct purification processes of the patient's plasma has formed the subject matter of a large amount of research justified by the interest in avoiding foreign plasma injections and the need of maintaining the indispensable constituent plasma elements at the desired levels.